The enemy is using a "shadow fleet," composed of vessels without official registration and flags, to plunder Ukrainian resources from ports such as Berdyansk and Mariupol. This was revealed by the spokesperson of the Ukrainian Naval Forces, Dmytro Pletenchuk, during a televised marathon.
"They have a so-called 'shadow fleet' that doesn't enter international ports. They use it with their AIS turned off, violating international maritime law. They enter the ports of Berdyansk, Mariupol... Load grain and metal there. Then they transship it to their own ports and attempt to legalize it, in order to later export it," the military official states.
According to Pletenchuk, the enemy has the audacity to offer the plundered goods as assistance to African countries.
- On April 28th, it became known that collaborators on the occupied territories of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia are seizing grain from farmers or purchasing it at low prices and selling it in Russia.
- On June 13th, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that in the temporarily occupied city of Berdyansk, Russians are loading bulk carriers with grain stolen from Ukrainian farmers.
- Upon the request of the Prosecutor's Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, a court imposed an arrest on five maritime vessels involved in exporting the plundered Ukrainian grain from the occupied peninsula.
- The captain of a Russian vessel, unlawfully transporting the plundered Ukrainian grain through the occupied Crimea, has been suspected of violating the procedure for entering the peninsula.
- Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that after the unilateral exit from the Black Sea grain initiative, Russia is ready to replace Ukrainian grain and begin supplying its own grain to African countries for free.
